The Barbarian Invasions

A life of wine, women, and, no, not song, but left-wing causes, has left Remy (Remy Girard) pretty much alone and dying from cancer.

Writer/Director Denys Arcand gives us a film that dispels the myth that we will all die a happy death.

Remy's son Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau) lives in London and doesn't have anything to do with his father, who rejects him because of his capitalist ways, but he comes in and gets things done for his father. The Canadian hospital and the unions are not presented in a good light. Sebastian has to grease palms with money everywhere he turns. He also calls his father's old friends and associates to get them to visit. It really gets funny when he naively goes to the police to find a source for heroin as the morphine is no longer working to alleviate his father's pain.

It is not only the Canadian health care system that is pilloried, but the Catholic Church, and the imperialism of many nations. It is truly a thinking person's film. There are so many great lines throughout and some great thoughts on life and death.

While Nathalie (Marie-Josée Croze) helped him ease into death, his friends relieved their youth around him.

He lived his life on his own terms, and he went out that way.

I want more Denys Arcand.

I recently watched this film and was very impressed. The screenplay, acting and directing were all top-notch. It was at times funny, sad, tragic and thought-provoking. It touches on everything from drug-use, Canadian medicare, the child-father relationship and of course, past intimate relationships- not all they were cracked up to be! Denys Arcand is so very astute on all these fronts and wrote a fantastic screenplay for the wonderful cast of characters.

It has to be one of my all-time favourite DVD's of 2004.

I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see a riveting, quality film made in Canada. It deserved the Oscar!

I read a lot of comments about the performance of the son in the movie, it's even more impressive when you know that the guy who played the son (Stephane Rousseau) is a stand up comic, whose only previous experience as an actor was in very bad, low budget comedy (Les dangereux).

I also read a lot of comments, from people from other countries, wondering if the Canadian health care is that bad? Well I'm from Quebec and if I had seen this movie last year I would have thought that it was a bit exaggerated but I saw it last night, after I had to go to the emergency last June for heart problems and when I saw the scenes in the hospital's corridor, I just relived what I experienced back then. I spent 4 days parked in a corridor, trying to sleep with lights on 24 hours a day, people working, circulating and nurses or doctors examining me in front of everybody. Believe me it's that bad!!

By the way it's a great movie, subtitles doesn't do it justice.

I rented this movie last weekend. Not having heard anything about it, I was prepared for a middling effort and some mild entertainment.

I have to say that I was happily surprised by the quality of this film. It is a very moving piece. It touched upon so many facets of every day life - love, death, sex, fidelity, family, ambition, religion, loyalty, forgiveness, and redemption. It was handled in an understated way that allows the audience to think about the themes introduced without hitting them over the head with a message. The cast was really terrific, too. I would definitely recommend this for an indie-foreign film aficionado.

In Montreal, Rémy (Remy Girard) is an atheistic professor of history and lover of women, who has a terminal disease. His wife calls their son, Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau) to come from London, where he works as a successful investor. Sébastien arrives in Montreal with his mate, and using his money and corruption, he improves the condition of his father in a public Canadian hospital. He gathers his father's friends around him, and they stay together until the death of Rémy. This low budget movie is a touching story about friendship and farewell to life, alternating drama with acid dialogs about religion, history, life, political system, literature and many other themes. The cast has a great performance, flowing the story in a very natural way. At least twice, the characters say that they are not in the Third World, and I certainly agree with that. But I was really surprised and impressed with the way subjects like corruption, Canadian public heath system, labor union, ministerial of exterior, bureaucracy, police, drug dealers etc. are presented in this film. If what this movie shows is reality, then they are in the right way to join the club... My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): ` As Invasões Bárbaras' (`The Barbarians Invasion')